I have been quite-no-crib customer of
Airtel for almost three years. I had initial issues but life
was going pretty smooth with them since then. Only till August 16th when I got a call from
Airtel regarding 3G migration and good plan where I was offered 500
local calls, 300 local and national sms, 200 MB 3G data free. Rental
was Rs 600 but I was offered 50% discount for 24 months. I was
currently on Rs 199 rental plan + Rs 99 gprs. So, this sounded good. I was told that new
plan will be activated within 4 hours and I will get sms for confirmation.
I didn't get any confirmation on plan
change till next day. I called the number back but it was switched
off and then I tweeted to airtel_presence. All tweets screenshots
posted at end of this blog. I got reply to tweet but no action till
20th when I got following sms.
The above sms, which I received on 20th
August at 4:24 pm, talks about free local calls and sms but no
information regarding free 3G data or discount on rental. In fact, it
says data will be charged volume based. Since I don't want to pay
airtel for talking to customer care, I chose to tweet to them. Again tweet
was responded but no call for a day. I got a call on Tuesday 5:22 pm
but since I was riding cycle from office to home, I couldn't take the
call. I again chose to tweet. I got following sms.
This sms, which I received on 21st
August at 7:07 pm, talks about discount on rental but again no
information on free data plan. Shocker was to follow. After 7
minutes, I received following message.
Following are screenshots from airtel website which shows my unbilled usage till 20th and 21st. If I have used 740 MB, my unbilled usage should be more than Rs 4,500 in 2G plan or Rs 2,250 for 3G plan. But amount is much lesser and compared to my usual usage.
Folllowing important points to be noted
- SMS talks about 3G data usage till 20th. 3G data got activated only on 20th at 4:24 pm
- Timing of this sms – just 7 minutes after activating discount on rental. Now what Airtel, recovering your rental discount?
- According to my earlier 2g data plan, I should have been informed when I was near to 300 MB or crossed it. But that never happened.
- My unbilled usage as per website is much lesser than what claimed by sms.
I got a call on 22nd August. And lady
confirmed that I have used data of 740 MB. And there is no way they can
find detail till bill is generated. I got really pained by the
answer. I asked her to cancel my 3G and put me back to my previous
plan and 2G internet. My 3G got deactivated but 2G internet was not
enabled. With no more option, I tweeted again. I got another call on
23rd August. I then came to realize that I am still on this new plan
but without 3G network. My plan was switched then but informed that
they can't do anything till bill is generated.
I have raised this issue with Airtel before the bill is generated. Instead of investigating the issue, I have been asked to wait till the bill is generated. And only then they can't check the usage detail. There are enough stories on net where
fraud bill has been generated and then they have been harassed to pay
the bill. Airtel even involves collection agency to collect the pending bill amount. I surely don't want to go through that. And I hope Airtel listens.
Following are all twitter messages that I sent to Airtel.
